Dive Details

Location

Date

Monday 17 July 2017

Time

10:51am - 12:43pm

Details

It was another calm day and the water off The Leap looked great. I jumped in from the low platform and Roney from the upper shelf. We swam out and then descended. We swam at around 60° to the sand line. At the sand line the visibility was 10 to 15 metres if not better. The water temperature was around 17°C and there was nearly no surge. We turned left and headed towards The Steps.

I spotted a Nembrotha sp. nudibranch before Seahorse Rock. Just before Bent Stick Rock I spotted the juvenile weedy seadragon which has been around for some time. On the rock below Bent Stick Rock I found the Ceratosoma brevicaudatum nudibranch.

Between Bent Stick Rock and Southern Cross Rock I saw two weedy seadragons. At Southern Cross Rock Roney pointed out the yellow male pygmy pipehorse in the Carijoa colony. He was higher than he usually is.

The small Nembrotha purpureolineata nudibranch was still near the start of Seadragon Alley. In Seadragon Alley I saw a weedy seadragon, a smallish giant cuttlefish and another small Nembrotha purpureolineata.

At the end of Seadragon Alley, just before the red widebody pipefish with the parasite, I found 2 pygmy pipehorses: a cryptic female and a pinkish male. I then found the pipefish in the same alga it has been for some time. I took some photographs of the pipefish as well as the algae which will be needed if they turn out to be a new species.

Between Seadragon Alley and Big Rock I found a dwarf lionfish and a weedy seadragon. I caught up to Roney near Big Rock. We were looking for the well camouflaged anglerfish when Roney pointed out a new even more cryptic one on top of the rock. Then it started to yawn.

We continued past Big Rock. I found the cryptic male pygmy pipehorse on the rock below Hand Rock. Roney and I looked on Slope Rock for the pink male pygmy but could not find him. We did find a cryptic male near the top.

We swam on to near the pair of red widebody pipefish. I found the grey red-fingered anglerfish ion the side of the rock where Roney had first spotted it. We found the pair of red widebody pipefish to the north-west of where they had been. They were no longer sharing an alga but were still close by each other.

We continued on to Diversity Rock. I found a cryptic male pygmy pipehorse on Diversity Rock. I couldn't find the other one. On the next big rock I found a cryptic male but could not find the white one we''d seen last week.

We headed for Little Big Rock but couldn't find any pygmies amongst the Carijoa but we did find the salmon red-fingered angler on the adjacent rock.

From here we headed for the boulders and did our safety stops while swimming to Split Rock. We exited at The Steps.

Buddy

Roney Rodrigues

Seas

Slight

Visibility

10 to 15 metres

Duration

112 minutes

Maximum depth

21.2 m

Average depth

15.1 m

Water temperature

16.8°C

Dive Profile from Citizen Hyper Aqualand

Tides at Botany Bay AEST

Note that tides at dive site may vary from above location.

High

1:36am

1.50m

Low

8:08am

0.47m

High

2:35pm

1.53m

Low

8:43pm

0.66m